The Detroit Lions have added another experienced body to a secondary that continues to take hits.
According to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the club is signing defensive back Jalen Mills to the practice squad, a move that comes after the 31-year-old worked out with Detroit on Monday alongside a handful of other veteran defensive backs.
The timing is not accidental. Detroit’s defensive backfield has been thinned by injuries, the most recent and damaging of which is the season-ending foot injury suffered by safety Avonte Maddox.
Maddox requires surgery and will miss the remainder of the year, leaving the Lions short on proven depth at a position group that has already been asked to absorb absences.
Bringing Mills in on the practice squad gives the coaching staff a familiar, versatile option who can be elevated if needed and who already has recent experience in the building.
Mills entered the league as a seventh-round selection of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016. He spent his first several seasons in Philadelphia, playing both corner and safety as the Eagles navigated the post-Super Bowl LII years.
After testing free agency in 2020 he returned to the Eagles on a one-year deal, then signed a four-year, $24 million contract with the New England Patriots in 2021. New England later converted him back to safety and re-signed him in 2023.
Since then his path has been that of a well-traveled veteran: a one-year stint with the New York Giants that ended in a midseason release, a brief stop with the Jets, a workout and practice-squad opportunity with the Houston Texans last offseason, and a December claim by Detroit.
Last season, he appeared in four games for Houston and three for the Lions, finishing with 10 tackles and a pass defended. That modest 2025 sample is less important than the body of work that precedes it. Mills has started games in multiple schemes, played both outside and in the slot, and shown a willingness to move between corner and safety as teams have asked.
For a Lions staff that values versatility and special-teams reliability in its practice-squad players, those traits matter. He is not expected to walk in and claim a starting role, but he can provide insurance against further attrition and a veteran presence in meetings and walkthroughs.
The Lions have been active in the veteran market this week precisely because of the Maddox news and the broader health picture in the secondary. Hosting multiple experienced defensive backs on Monday signaled that the front office and coaching staff wanted options ready rather than waiting for the next injury to force a scramble.
Signing Mills to the practice squad is the first concrete result of that process. Whether he is elevated in the coming weeks will depend on how the current group holds up and whether additional injuries surface.
For now, he gives Detroit another player who knows the playbook from last December and who has seen enough NFL football to contribute immediately if called upon.
Practice-squad additions of this type rarely generate headlines, yet they often prove useful over a long season. With Maddox lost for the year and the secondary already operating with limited margin, the Lions have chosen a known quantity who can fill multiple roles.
Mills’ latest stop in Detroit is another chapter in a career defined by adaptability. For a team trying to stay healthy enough to compete, that adaptability is exactly what the practice squad is for.
